Page 80 of Always Be an Us

Finally, he chuckles, and says, "Alright. You leave me no choice."

"No choice but to what?" my infernal curiosity makes me ask.

"You’re not going home," he says, and finally releases me tucking his hands into his pocket as though trying very hard to keep them there. "You’ll stay here with me."

My mind swims. A bunch of different images pop into my head, most of them including tangled sheets, sweaty limbs reaching for each other, lips on the neck, inside thighs, on ….

"There’s a spare room," he continues diverting my dirty thoughts. He points in the corner. "Down that hallway. I sometimes use the space as a study, but there’s a bed in there too. I’ll sleep there. You can take my bedroom."

"Oh." I blush when I realize that I automatically assumed when he said, "stay over" that we would be sleeping in the same bed. How ridiculous. "No, that's alright. I don’t want to put you out."

"It’s not putting me out," he says and beckons for me to follow him around the corner and down the hall, to another intricately decorated door at the end of it. Next to it is a bathroom with the door open.

Declan pushes open the first door and gestures inside. "See? It has everything I would need."

I follow his gaze, walking closer to look into the room.

The room does look nice, with a mahogany desk that Grandpa would fawn over and a brown leather upholstered platform bed with a cashmere earth-toned duvet.

The rest of the room has the same wooden luxury lodge aesthetic as the rest of the suite, with a carved-edge window next to the bed that overlooks the lake in the distance.

I can even see the Tiki Bar from here.

I can tell Declan spends a lot of time in here because the room smells like him. Like leather, cologne, and wood.

"So I can sleep in here," Declan says and backs back out of the door. I follow him back to the living room, and he heads to the door opposite the one Amelia walked into. He pushes that door open. "And you can sleep here."

Once I get close enough to see into the room, I gape. I thought the other room was nice, but this one is exquisite. It’s about twice the size of the other room, with a huge king-size platform upholstered bed, covered with similar soft-looking sheets.

Instead of the dark mahogany of the other room, the wood here is a soft cream, and there’s a door in the corner leading to a walk-in closet. The window over the bed is even larger with an even more beautiful view, showing the lights dotting across town and leading into the green forests.

"That other door leads to a private bathroom," he continues, stepping in and opening up another door. The bathroom is alabaster white, perfect tiles and a pristine bathtub shower combo.

The frosted glass shower door is completely clean, without a hint of suds, as it has never been used. Even the metal looks new. It also smells like lavender, a delicate scent that feels like it's enticing me into the bath.

"The shower dials take a bit of getting used to," he continues. "But I’ve pretty much set it up so all you have to do is twist that thing to the left for hot water, and then to the right if you want it a little colder.

I gape, unable to believe this, and shake my head.

"The maid cleans everything every day, so you don’t have to worry about my germs lying around."

"I’m not worried about that. I like your germs." I utter a sharp intake of breath at the realization of what I just said, then cover it up with a quick "But I can’t stay here. I don’t want to inconvenience you."

"Like I already said, it’s not an inconvenience. Seriously. You can stay for as long as you like. Or at least as long as your Grandpa is still in the hospital."

"No, Declan I really can't. I mean what would Amelia think?"

"She’ll think that you're going through a tough time, probably need to be around people, and so you slept over. It’s either that, or I get you a separate hotel room, like I did for Sandy, but I don’t think that would solve your problem."

And his knowing gaze shows that he thinks he understands what I'm going through. Although, he doesn’t fully understand my pain.

Because I haven't told anyone, not even my Grandpa what I'm really scared of.

Declan probably thinks this is solely about missing my Grandpa and not wanting to be at home without him. And while it is partially about that, it’s more so about the inherent fear that plagues me when I hear the wind beat at the window, or the door hinges creak, or even the cricket chirp outside. All those sounds are magnified because my ears are always on high alert, listening for something else.

Something more menacing.

I couldn’t sleep all of last night. I kept my ears and eyes open, staring at the ceiling, every horror movie I'd ever watched playing in my mind. And now that I'm grown, I know these are not just childish fears.

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